The 1872 Diary of the Mooresville Macy Farmstead: .....Footsteps from the Mayflower to California

By Joyce A. Robinson and Donovan L.

A Farmsteadin Morgan County, IN has stood as a sentinel on the South West corner of Mooresville since 1859 whenWilliam Monroe Macy (WMM), 1820-1911, built the home. It stands in 2010 as the residence of Donovan and Joyce Robinson. WMM was prosperous by local community standards of the period, however, that did not afford him much leisure. He managed many diverse businesses which kept him and his entire family hard at work every season of the year. This book focuses primarily on the personal journal Alva Perry Macy wrote during 1872 while living on this Farmstead.The activities he records are through the eyes of a 14 year old who seems fascinated with the industry around him. The farm life of the 1870s would not be considered the good old days by most young adults of today. His focus on local people and their names will hopefully provide todays history buffs a chance to put a bit of life on the stark printed pages of genealogy records. To put the "journal" in perspective, the family history has been explored to properly position the Mooresville Macys of 1872. The Robinsons gathered many facts about the Macys in libraries and from surviving descendants. Many stories have been told numerous times by other authors. The Robinsons have compiled what they believe to be an accurate account of the MacyFarmstead.... and offer it to the interest of others. Alva is a ninth generation derivative of Mayflower passengers (John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley) of 1620. His ancestors also include the early Nantucket settlers (Thomas Macy) who challenged the raw wilderness of the 1600s. The Macys were somehow driven for 300 years to continue in that vein as they moved inland and westward from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 22, 2010
• ISBN: 9781449006303

Joyce A. Robinson

   Donovan and Joyce Robinson feel too little has been written of the generation which created a comfortable world for our 21st century life. Politicians and warriors have dominated the history taught in school, however, our culture was equally developed by people who converted the American wilderness into cities and production centers.    The Macy story began with the Robinsons' effort to thwart an 'eminent domain powered condemnation' of the front lawn of the Farmstead. A basis for declaring the Farmstead an Historical Landmark was needed. The Macys (who built the home in 1859) lived long, left a trail of Quaker records, descended from Mayflower passengers, and were major players at each settlement they joined, while 8 generations of Macy genes proceeded from Plymouth Rock to California. As retirees, Donovan and Joyce had a reasonable excuse for going to California, Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts,Nantucket, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Long afternoons in historical libraries passed easily as they gathered bits and pieces of the Macy record. A lifetime of team effort was normal for the Robinsons. In pursuit of Macy ancestors, the evolution of Macy/Massie/Massey sparked a further study which concluded Joyce shared a Massie ancestor with the man who built the Farmstead where she lives. This is discussed in THE AFTERGLOW. Donovan's career was in product development which included 6 patents, 2 technical papers published by the Society of Automotive Engineers and other industrial reports. Compiling the Macy story and organizing the data was not far from engineering methodology. The shared authorship included severe editing by both parties.  Joyce's book I Was a Waif and Child Servant was published in 2008. "THE 1872 DIARY of the MOORESVILLE MACY FARMSTEAD" is the culmination of nearly 5 years of effort by 'Team Robinson'.

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Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Macy Farmstead

Transcontinental Migration of the MACY GENES

Macy Route to Mooresville, IN

JOHN HOWLAND

Thomas Macy’s Nantucket

THOMAS MACY

JOHN MACY I

New Garden NC Settlers

BARACHIAH MACY

Guilford County, NC Land Warrants

Jefferson County, TN Land Sales

Lost Creek Monthly Meeting Jefferson County, TN

Macy Family Burials along the Way

Notes on WILLIAM MACY

Six Macy Brides for Six Hadley Grooms

Notes on WILLIAM MONROE MACY

The Coded Love Letters

The William Monroe Macy Household

Right of Way for Mooresville Monrovia Gravel Road Co

Wm. M. Macy Farm Census-1880

Donors to the Quaker Academy

Aaron Mills Macy

Hannah Mariah Macy

ALVA PERRY MACY

Alva Perry Macy’s Journal—1872

William M Macy Sale of Toll Road Rejected-1882

Notice of Gravel Road Election

Commissioners Action on Petitions to Purchase Toll Road

Macy after Mooresville

Mooresville Monrovia Gravel Road Co Bankrupts

THE AFTERGLOW

Appendix

Final Entries-Death Records

Aaron Mills Macy Obituary

Death Takes Ida M. Macy

Genealogy

Descendants of John Howland

Descendants of Thomas Macy

About the Authors

Illustrations

1. Macy Farmstead 2010 Home of Donovan L. & Joyce A. Robinson

2. Macy Farmstead Timeline

3. English Origins of Mayflower Passengers Note: John Howland & Elizabeth Tilley

4. Map of Nantucket Thomas Macy settled on the NW Coast

5. Robinson’s 2007 Photo of Lost Creek Church

6. Slave States & Free States as of 1820

7. William Macy (1786-1869) Son of Barachiah

8. 1850’s Macy Migration-Economy to Mooresville, IN map

9. William Monroe Macy at 80 Years Old (1900)

10. W M Macy Farmstead Plat-SW of Mooresville, IN

11. 1860 Plat Map-Brown Township, Morgan County, IN Many of the neighbors are noted in Alva’s diary

12. Macy Farmstead 1869 Note: William, Julia, Aaron, Alva & Cynthia

13. White Lick Friends Church in 2009 Built by William Monroe Macy in 1864

14. Mooresville Quaker Academy in 2009 Built by William Monroe Macy in 1861 -on National Register of Historic Places

15. Alva Perry Macy as a Young Man

16. Macys in Dayton, OR about 1900 Cynthia, Owen, Macy, Bernice, & Arthur Hatfield William Monroe & Julia Ann Mills Macy

17. Robinson’s 2004 Photo of Macy’s Dayton, OR Home

18. Julia’s Letter of 1-13-1913 From Denair, CA to Nieces Elmina & Ella In Mooresville, IN

19. Descendants of Alva Perry Macy

20. William Monroe Macy Death Certificate

21. Julia Ann Mills Macy Death Certificate

22. Alva Perry Macy Death Certificate

23. Ida May Moore Macy Death Certificate

24. Cynthia Ruth Macy Hatfield Death Certificate

25. Owen Hatfield Death Certificate

26. William, Julia, Cynthia, & Owen Tombstones

Acknowledgements

We thank the Macy Family members for sharing information, photos, and enthusiasm.

Morgan County Historic Preservation Society and Morgan County History and Genealogy Association made us aware of the possibilities for researching this story.

Rhonda and Michael Winter provided valuable technical support.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the Macy family who lived in the Mooresville community in the mid 1800’s and to those who appreciate the struggles and contributions of the Macys and their neighbors. The viability of the Mooresville community was surely built on solid foundations of character, industry, and fortitude these early pioneers possessed.

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1. Macy Farmstead

2010 Home of Donovan L. & Joyce A. Robinson

Foreword

This story was compiled as part of an effort to protect an Italianate home, built in 1859, from major damage by a government entity. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) sports a miniscule history compared to this homestead built prior to the Civil War by William Monroe Macy near Mooresville, IN.

The data fragments accumulated by the current owners while pursuing Historical Landmark registration became bulbous. Yet the information is so reflective of the American Evolution to be worthy of consolidation for local family and history buffs.

The Macy Farmstead has been owned by the Macy, Johnson, Richardson and Robinson families over the past 150 years. Among these four families are descendants of Mayflower passengers, Richard the Lion Hearted, and Revolutionary War veterans. One resident became a missionary teacher in South Africa.

William Monroe Macy was born in Tennessee in 1820, migrated to and owned farms in

(Economy) Randolph County, IN 1849-1856

(Mooresville) Morgan County, IN 1856-1882

(Dayton) Yamhill County, OR 1882-1907

(Greenleaf) Canyon County, ID 1907-1911 and

passed away in Denair, CA in 1911 at 91 years of age. His family’s story is a classic story of the true pioneers who traversed this nation from east to west. They left in their wake cleared land, churches, schools, and homesteads which they constructed with great hope and promise for the future. Apparently, the pioneering spirit was fueled by the diminishing timber, expired soil fertility, and the lure of a profitable sale before attaining near-free land further west.

The Alonzo Johnson family purchased the 342 acre property in 1883. Tough economic times diminished the family’s holdings until the death of Alonzo’s last unmarried daughter which culminated in the remaining 31 acres being subjected to foreclosure proceedings in 1931.

Willis & Clara Sellars Richardson purchased these 31 acres in 1931 out of foreclosure, and additional acres in 1945 from the only surviving Johnson daughter, Harriet Alden.

Donovan Lee and Joyce Ann Burke Robinson purchased the farm from Clara Sellars Richardson in 1981. Additional adjoining acres were purchased in 1993.

This story traces the genealogy which research has revealed for the Macy family. The record keeping included in the Quaker monthly meeting minutes provided a paper trail which tied the migrations together with reliable authenticity.

There seems to have been a sense of history in these families since autobiographies, love letters, diaries and photographs were created, preserved and available to this 21st century project.

Since the available data would fill a book too heavy to carry, the focus will be on a journal written in 1872 by Alva Perry Macy. Alva was the 14 year old son of William Monroe Macy. As a farm boy, he was required to work as a man and yet he was granted ample time to pursue boyhood curiosities. He had a keen eye for rural farm life and the people who engaged the Macy Farmstead. Tracing the origins of this household hopefully places this family in the timeline of US history and adds perspective to the 1872 activities which Alva so clearly describes in his journal.

We did not take the liberty of correcting spelling where the reader could reasonably understand the thought. Overall, the grammar, and communication skills appear notable for a 14 year old farm boy. Perhaps a few minutes with his journal, summarizing the day’s events of his family and local neighborhood, proved more productive for a youngster than an evening with TV abnormalities.

We thank Dr. Thomas Hamm, archivist, at the Lilly Library of Earlham College. He was helpful in gathering and explaining how to utilize Macy family reference materials.

Note:

Mabel Leigh Hunt authored a book, LUCINDA, A Little Girl of1860, in 1934. She later declared that LUCINDA was actually the story of her own mother. The setting of the book is the vicinity around Bethel Friends Meeting house, where her mother, Amanda Harvey, spent her childhood within a Quaker neighborhood during the Civil War. The Macy Farmstead sits within 2 miles of the Bethel Church and school house where William Monroe Macy’s son, Aaron, taught during the 1876-77 school year.

After this first book, Mabel Leigh Hunt (11/1/1892//9/3/1971), continued writing and authored a total of 30 volumes of interest to juvenile readers.

She was born in Coatesville, IN, educated at DePauw University, and was a librarian at the Indianapolis Public Library from 1926 to 1938. Many of her stories were highlighted by wholesome Quaker family themes.

Introduction

A Farmstead exists in Brown Township, Morgan County, IN, which has stood as a sentinel on the South West corner of the town of Mooresville since 1859. The home was built immediately before the Civil War. It has been home to 4 families and has undergone two major renovations since it was constructed before modern conveniences which we have grown to expect such as running water, electric power, telephone and central heating and cooling.

The home was built by William Monroe Macy (WMM) for his own family in 1859. It stands in 2010 as the residence of Donovan and Joyce Robinson.

It seems WMM was as prosperous as anyone in the local community, however, that did not allow him much leisure. William Monroe Macy was an engaged manager of many diverse businesses. His entire family was hard at work every season of the year.

This book is primarily a presentation of the personal journal Alva Perry Macy wrote during 1872 while living on this Farmstead. He turned 14 during that year and the activities he records are through the eyes of a 14 year old who seems fascinated with the industry around him. The farm life of the 1870’s would not be considered the good old days by most young adults of today.

His focus on local people and their names will hopefully provide today’s history buffs a chance to put a bit of life on the stark printed pages of genealogy records. A great effort has been made to correctly identify the people he mentions by researching the 1870 census as well as several other sources for the personal data.

To put the journal in perspective, the family history has been explored to properly identify the Mooresville Macys of 1872. Joyce and I have been fascinated by the Macy family. In our research, we have visited-Dayton, OR

—Denair, CA

—Vashon Isle, WA

—Plymouth, MA

—Nantucket, MA

—Greensboro, NC

—Dandridge, TN.

We gathered many facts about the Macys in libraries and from surviving descendants. Much of the earliest history has been told numerous times by other authors. Proper credit to each of our sources would dwarf the message. We believe we have compiled an accurate account of these Macys and their Farmstead and offer it to others.

Alva is a 9th generation derivative of the Mayflower passengers of Plymouth. His ancestors also include the early Nantucket settlers who challenged the raw wilderness of the 1600’s. They were somehow driven to continue in that vein as they moved inland and westward from sea to shining sea.

When WMM left Mooresville in 1882, he took Julia Ann, his wife of 33 years, son Alva and daughter Cynthia. He left behind both of his parents, daughter Hannah, and son Aaron who had died during the family’s tenure in Morgan County, IN. They are all buried in the White Lick Cemetery.

We Americans owe a lot to the folks who, fortified by true grit and inalterable faith, civilized the wilderness and built our early towns and villages.

We hope this story will entertain and inspire others. It certainly captivated us as we tried to place the 1872 journal in its appropriate light.

The Afterglow is a coincidental addition at the end. It resulted from our chasing the Macy family genealogy until it became apparent that Joyce’s ancestors shared the Macy Tree.

Enjoy!

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2. Macy Farmstead Timeline

Macy Farmstead

The Macy Farmstead in 2010 is the core of what was a 343 acre farmstead operated by the William Monroe Macy family from 1859 to 1882. William Monroe Macy was a Quaker, a farmer, and a builder. He was extremely industrious. He built the brick Italianate home in 1859 which was the center of much social and commercial activity in Brown Township, Morgan County, Indiana.

His farm included a fruit orchard. He sold peaches and apples and built a dry house to preserve the fruit for extended palatability. He raised potatoes, corn, oats, wheat, cows, and hogs which he sold and bartered with other members of his community.

William Monroe Macy was seriously engaged as a timber merchant who bought trees from neighbors, harvested the timber logs and dragged them to Mooresville to be shipped by rail to timber buyers. The tree tops were cut into firewood and sold to Mooresville residents by the wagon load. He operated a huge maple sugar camp which collected the maple tree sap in buckets, and boiled it down to maple syrup. When quantities permitted, his family boiled the syrup further to create ‘pralines’ of maple sugar which was good trading stock at the local stores.

The MACY FARMSTEAD (1859), along with the Quaker Academy (1861) and White Lick Friends Church (1864), all remain as a testament to his credentials as a builder. The MACY FARMSTEAD has been home to the Macy, Johnson, Richardson and Robinson families from 1859 to 2010. The Friends Church has served the local congregation continuously since 1864. The Quaker Academy was a school until 1972. It was restored in 2000 and serves in 2010 as the Academy of Hoosier Heritage (a local history museum).

The MACY FARMSTEAD is located about 1 mile South West of Mooresville, IN. overlooking Indiana State Road 42 and sits upon 80A bounded by White Lick Creek and Bethel Road. The brick, two story, Italianate home has evolved from its beginning with no electric, no running water, nor central heating & cooling to a residence which includes most features of a 21st century home.

William Monroe Macy was the 1st president of the Mooresville Monrovia Gravel Road Company (a corporation formed in 1865) It was a toll road and a toll booth was located between White Lick Creek and the Macy home. Indiana SR42 evolved from this toll road.

Macy sold the 343A farmstead to Martin Ruble on 4-18-1882 for $18000. Nine months later, Ruble sold the Farm for $24000 to the Alonzo Johnson family. After suffering economic downturns through the early 1900’s, the farm had been reduced to 31.68A by the Johnsons. In 1931, Willis and Clara Richardson procured the property from the Johnson estate for $4215. In 1945, they purchased another 46.59A of the original land from Harriet (Johnson) Alden.

Donovan and Joyce Robinson purchased the 78.67A farm in 1981 and annexed 10.41A which had been recently listed as ‘owner unknown’. In 1993, another parcel (6.75A) was purchased bringing a total of 95.83A of the original 343A back together. Subsequent grants to INDOT and the Robinson heirs leave 81.26A at this writing.

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3. English Origins of Mayflower Passengers

Note: John Howland & Elizabeth Tilley

Transcontinental Migration of the

MACY GENES

Macy Route to Mooresville, IN

The good ship MAYFLOWER and sister ship Speedwell sailed from Southampton, England August 5, 1620. Problems with Speedwell caused them to stop at Plymouth, England whereupon the Mayflower sailed alone September 17, 1620. The authors of the book (Donovan L. and Joyce A. Robinson) personally set foot and stood on the spot from which the Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, England in 2001. The Mayflower landed near the present site of Provincetown, MA. After some exploration, the present site of Plymouth, MA was chosen for the settlement where the Robinsons also stood in 2007.

The 102 passengers included John Howland (from Huntingdonshire, England) and Elizabeth Tilley (from Bedfordshire, England) who married sometime after arrival in the New World. They were also among the 50% of passengers who survived that first winter in Plymouth.

Elizabeth and John Howland had a daughter, Desire Howland, who married John Gorham. Their son, Shubael Gorham (born Barnstable, MA 10-27-1664-d.1730) married Puella Hussey (b.10-10-1677 d.b4 9-23-1748) at Barnstable in May 1693.

Puella and Shubael Gorham’s daughter, Deborah (b. 1714 in Barnstable, d. 4-211789 on Nantucket Island) married Beriah Fitch (b.8-30-1713 on Nantucket) 12-111735.

Thomas Macy (1608-1682) arrived in America by 1639 and was among the original settlers of Salisbury, MA. The Macys have deep roots in American history.

Thomas was a Baptist, but was conflicted by the restrictions placed on religion and persecution of the Quakers. Thomas and his wife migrated to Nantucket Isle in 1659 where they were apparently the first white inhabitants. This line of Macys remained on Nantucket through John Macy (1655-1691), John Macy II (1675-1751), and John Macy III (1721-1795). Barachiah’s father, John Macy III, gathered his wife and children and migrated to New Garden, NC in 1771 prior to the Revolutionary War along with the Beriah Fitch and Benjamin Barnard families.

Deborah and Beriah Fitch’s daughter, Eunice, married Benjamin Barnard and had a daughter, Lucinda (3-17-1767// 4-5-1810) who married Barachiah Macy (2-24-1760 // 8-28-1832) on 3-20-1783 at New Garden, NC.

Barachiah was the great great grandson of Thomas Macy. This marriage joined the Macy family to the line of Mayflower descendants.

John Macy III died in the home of his son, Barachiah, during George Washington’s second term (7-18-1795).

Barachiah’s son, William Macy (10-4-1786 // 1-17-1869), was born in Guilford County, NC. In 1801 Barachiah moved his family to Jefferson County, TN.

In 1807, William purchased 200A and signed a note for $500. He married Hannah Hinshaw (2-8-1789// 2-19-1866) on 3-1-1809.

In 1812, William, of strong Quaker persuasion, was drafted into Andrew (Old Hickory) Jackson’s Army and refused to serve. Consequently, all his assets were confiscated. By 1815 William worked himself debt free and had built a good house. By 1820 He had 5 sons (including William